"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5

Points to Ponder ...

"My children may bicker, and I may—almost certainly will—complain. But the bickering and the griping are chaff, and what’s left when the winds of time carry them away are the golden kernels I want to savor..."
--Melissa Wiley

November 20, 2007

Christmas Mosaic

My heartfelt desire this year is to really bring our faith into central focus throughout our days, not just in our schooling, but in the very fabric of my family's life.

To that end, Cay Gibson has outdone herself with this book. Using excellent children's picture books as her focus, she has marked out a rich and beautiful path for any Catholic family to follow, as we make our way through Advent toward Christmas, and beyond.

My goal tonight was to pick several books from Cay's list, to try to locate as we dive headlong into Thanksgiving and beginning Christmas preparations this weekend. I found thoughtfully prepared book summaries, arranged for each week of Advent, with a weekly focus that mirrors what is actually likely to be happening in our family--week one's focus is decoration, week 2's is giving, week 3's is family and week 4 is Christmas itself. (There's more than this to it as well, but those are the topics that immediately jumped out at me!) Following the booklist is a series of selected annotations, and then simple study guides to aid in getting the most out of a selection with your family. Throughout the book are beautiful reflections by several talented women well-known in the Catholic homeschooling world.

Christmas, of course, overflowing with the dearest of memories throughout a lifetime, is a profoundly heartwarming season all its own. Cay seems to have a gift for locating the perfect resources for gently touching that deep and special place in our hearts.

I was reading the Advent book summaries tonight as I sat through my daughter's
karate class--not exactly a tranquil atmosphere for such a thing, but
the boys were with The Chief, and I take what time I can get!

Anyway, I kept getting all misty-eyed and had to keep swallowing
hard. When I got to Alice Gunther's reflection on a special gift that graces her home during the Christmas season, I had to shut the book, or I
wouldn't be able to keep myself from crying outright!

It's just that beautiful. Oh, and I'll never look at spiders quite the same way, to boot!

Thank you, Cay, for an amazing and heartwarming resource. I know
without a doubt that this will have a profoundly positive influence on
my family this Christmas season, and for many, many to come.

Welcome to My Blog!

We are a Catholic homeschooling family of 7, a blend of step children, bio children and adoptees, making our way to heaven the best way we know how! Here's a record of our journey, with thoughts on anything we care about--mostly homeschooling, faith and finding a way to make it all work for each of us. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy your visit!